Monday, November 16, 2015

Fall Reading 2015 The Fox and the Star

This is a lovely fable of Fox and his only friend, Star. The two friends are together every night and have wonderful time. When Star disappears one night, Fox is too worried and lonely to do anything but curl up in his den. Eventually he rouses himself and goes looking for star. What he finds is well worth the search and he learns a valuable lesson, "Look up beyond your fears." Imagine what the world would be like if all of us could look beyond our fears and find the courage to go out and try new things.

The illustrations are amazing. The creator has done cover designs at Penguin Books, but this is her first book as author/illustrator. You can see the strong sense of graphic design in the pages. There are pages full of brambles and thorns or tall straight trees that Fox must wander through on his search for Star. One spread focuses on Fox's eyes and you can see Star reflected in them. One of my favorites is the scene looking up through the trees and all the leaves to see Star shining in the space between the branches.

Both the text and the illustrations are suited for readers of all ages, and everyone will find something personally meaningful in reading it.